LINGUIST List 14.3256

Wed Nov 26 2003

Qs: English Topicalization; Tagalog Particle

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Hello-
I was just wondering if anyone knew of work on "rightward quantifier
topicalization" structures? (my own name, I'm not sure what they are/have
been called) E.g.
1. a. All of the men went to the store.
b. The men, all of them, went to the store.
c. The men went to the store, all of them.
Any info (or thoughts on the construction) would be much appreciated.
Sincerely,
Peter Jenks
Dartmouth College

Dear Linguists
Does anyone have any ideas about the syntactic function of the
''adjectival linking'' particle -ng, -g, na in Tagalog? I have noticed
that it occurs on numerals, which can only precede nouns in this
language, e.g
lima - ng lobo
five - linker balloon
''five balloons''
It has occurred to me that it could be some sort of agreement marker,
as the occurrence of agreement on quantifiers is known in other
languages (e.g Hebrew and Turkish). It also occurs on adjectives, when
they precede the noun, e.g
malayo - ng bayon
far-linker land
''faraway land''
Again this seems compatible with the idea that it is an agreement
marker, or perhaps a marker of predication (if we assume that even
modifying adjectives still basically have predication as their main
function). How would one say ''the land is far'' in this language?
Would it also involve the linking particle?
The problem is,though, that it is also possible to put adjectives
after the noun in this language, and here the linking particle goes
onto the NOUN.
bayon - g malayo
land-particle far
''faraway land''
This does not seem very compatible with the idea that it is an
agreement or predication marker. Does anyone have any ideas of how
this particle should be interpreted?
Thanks
Rose thomas
rose_thomas33hotmail.com
Subject-Language: Tagalog; Code: TGL